Game Fever Feature Doc imminent worldwide release

Working with French production company ZED, Mandarin Film provided extensive production services for their new feature length 4K documentary ‘Game Fever’

“Shot in 4K on a budget of €1.25 million, the film follows a group of elite players ­– Moon, Gogoing, Cha Jihoon, Sky and sOs – who are stars in the world of competitive multi-player video game tournaments, such as League of Legends, Warcraft 3 and Starcraft II.

“Dalian Wanda came on board because they were thinking of producing a film about eSports to reach the huge community of fans in Asia,” explains Zed president and the doc’s producer Manuel Catteau. “They thought it would be better to team up with us, rather than producing their own film.”

The move marks the first time Dalian Wanda has backed a theatrical feature-length documentary.

Martin-Delpierre came up with the idea for Game Fever after meeting South Korean pro gamer Jang “Moon” Jae-Ho.

“The story of Moon is very universal – it’s about a young man trying to find a way in life between the virtual world and the real world. It’s about young guys trying to be men,” he tells realscreen during a break in editing for the doc. “A lot of people know nothing about video games or eSports. They know nothing about the Chinese spirit or the Korean spirit. It’s a complex story.” Realscreen – July 2016

Mandarin Film provided full production support for the China shoots including research, prep and production support in the form of crew and equipment hire.

A key challenge was dealing with crazy schedules of the gamers – not only are they either practicing 24/7 or travelling around the world to international tournaments, but they are also super-rich megastars themselves, and the demands on their time is relentless!

Fortunately we managed to negotiate quality time with each of the protagonists, the documentary offering an intimate and startling insight into the hidden world of pro-gaming.

The films’ Asia premiere was in Bangkok, and Mandarin Film had the pleasure of attending.